Unique activity of platinum adislands in the CO electrooxidation reaction

The development of electrocatalytic materials of enhanced activity and efficiency through careful manipulation, at the atomic scale, of the catalyst surface structure has long been a goal of electrochemists. To accomplish this ambitious objective, it would be necessary both to obtain a thorough understanding of the relationship between the atomic-level surface structure and the catalytic properties and to develop techniques to synthesize and stabilize desired active sites. In this contribution, we present a combined experimental and theoretical study in which we demonstrate how this approach can be used to develop novel, platinum-based electrocatalysts for the CO electrooxidation reaction in CO(g)-saturated solution; the catalysts show activities superior to any pure-metal catalysts previously known. We use a broad spectrum of electrochemical surface science techniques to synthesize and rigorously characterize the catalysts, which are composed of adisland-covered platinum surfaces, and we show that highly undercoordinated atoms on the adislands themselves are responsible for the remarkable activity of these materials.